Student Blog: Find My Friends

Being an incoming first year can be hard. Trust me, I know. One of the scariest parts is roommate selection, but I'm here to tell you that going random is not as scary as it sounds. They can turn out to be one of your best friends.

My sophomore year was rough. I am not going to say it's a bad idea to live with all theatre majors. It might work for some people, but it was not the best situation for my friends and me. I lived with five other theatre majors who also happened to be my best friends. I don't regret it because I don't know who else I would have lived with. I also gained a lifelong friend out of it, but it definitely took a toll on me. Having to move out early due to COVID was only the cherry on top of an already hard school year, but I think the time apart is what saved my friendships with most of those 5 people.

When it came time to choose a living situation for junior year, all I knew was that I would be with Shannon. Shannon is my best friend, and they will be forever and always. We grew closer because of the whole situation sophomore year; I am forever grateful to have them in my life. Anyway, Shannon and I had only one option and that was to go random for our other roommates. We ended up with someone we had a class with freshman year for one roommate. However, our fourth was a complete stranger.

I was nervous to say the least. I'm an introvert. Meeting new people is hard for me, and sharing a space with them is even harder.

From the very first time I met Olivia (the random roommate), I knew she was one of the coolest people I'd ever known. She wore thrifted clothes and brought her skateboard with her most everywhere. She had a very 'I don't care what other people think' aura to her. Almost immediately, I was able to open up and talk without feeling awkward with her. That is something that almost never happens for me. She made me tea when I was stressed, yummy cabbage and rice when I was hungry, and we even bought into each other's crazy schemes. Have you ever built a device to slide under a locked door to open it from the inside? Well, we have. We got ourselves back into one of our rooms we accidentally locked ourselves out of no problem, only took us about 3 hours. We probably just could have had someone come unlock it for us, but our way was more fun.

Back to my point, I have never had a friend I could talk to as effortlessly as I can with Olivia. She has quickly become a very close friend to both Shannon and I, and the only reason we met was because she desperately needed roommates, just like Shannon and I. So, if you're feeling nervous to head off to a new place and live with new people, don't be! And don't feel pressured to quickly find roommates before you get to school. You may end up with someone as amazing as Olivia just by chance if you go random. Even if you don't though, that's okay! I have been through some pretty difficult living situations, but I got through them and met my people along the way. You can get through it too. To all incoming first years at Butler or really any college, welcome! I hope you love college life as much as I do. To Olivia and Shannon and Kitty as well (don't think I forgot about you), I love you all so much! I can't wait for the best senior year full of karaoke nights, dancing in fountains, and oh so much M.A.S.H.

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